With the increased use of portable electronic devices such as notebooks, portable telephones, cameras and others and with the increased use of electrically-driven automobiles, secondary or rechargeable batteries with high energy density have received increasing attention as a power source for these devices. Examples of such rechargeable batteries are lithium ion rechargeable batteries.
Further, integrated circuits or electronic devices requiring a relatively low amount of electrical energy are increasingly used in many applications. Hence, it would be desirable to provide miniaturized batteries that can supply these integrated circuits or electronic devices with energy.